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Almost 2 years later, where do you stand on Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood?
- Thread starter Solo
- Start date
Just watched it for the first time with the wife. She hated it. I can't understand what was the point of it all. Not a terribly well crafted movie.
Many great scenes but as a whole it's one of Tarantino's weakest films.
S tier: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown
A tier: Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained
B tier: Death Proof, Hateful Eight, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
S tier: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown
A tier: Kill Bill, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained
B tier: Death Proof, Hateful Eight, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Fun fact
Pulp fiction was 13 years old when death proof released
Death proof is 14 years old this year
Which means pulp fiction was closer to death proof than death proof to the present which means you are very old
Anyway here is my qt ranking:
1 pf
2 rd
3 basterds
4 django
5 hollywood
6 jackie brown
7 death proof
8 kb1
9 kb2
10 h8
Pulp fiction was 13 years old when death proof released
Death proof is 14 years old this year
Which means pulp fiction was closer to death proof than death proof to the present which means you are very old
Anyway here is my qt ranking:
1 pf
2 rd
3 basterds
4 django
5 hollywood
6 jackie brown
7 death proof
8 kb1
9 kb2
10 h8
It still has a handful of scenes that run circles around most films, but somehow it feels as a whole like the movie is less than the sum of it's parts.
I'm always finding interesting little details every time I watch it. When Manson comes to Sharon Tate's house, we see a POV of behind Sharon as she walks down the hall. Just as she turns the corner towards the door where Manson is talking to Jay Sebring, you can see behind Sharon a movie poster on the wall with the image of a skull on it. If you pause on it, you can see it has four images: a woman screaming, an upraised knife, a skull, and a glaring, evil-looking male face. At the top the title is, "The Murder You've Been Waiting For".
There's a lot I enjoy about it, but I was mostly pretty disappointed. Bruce Lee's portrayal was insulting. For all the talk of how much respect he put into Tate's portrayal, he still couldn't help inserting his foot fetish into her scenes.
Moreover, it feels like one of his most conservative movies, too. The idea that the murders could have been stopped if only a badass old school kind of REAL man had been there, feels gross, to me. I know it's a kind of QT wish fulfillment, but Brad Pitt's "hot loner with a heart of gold" character was a boring choice.
Leo was brilliant, though, and has some genuinely tender moments, some of them with Pitt, too. Their relationship was great.
Moreover, it feels like one of his most conservative movies, too. The idea that the murders could have been stopped if only a badass old school kind of REAL man had been there, feels gross, to me. I know it's a kind of QT wish fulfillment, but Brad Pitt's "hot loner with a heart of gold" character was a boring choice.
Leo was brilliant, though, and has some genuinely tender moments, some of them with Pitt, too. Their relationship was great.
It was a bit of a different movie than what he has done lately, nothing much happens until the end. All in all it was okay, but not something I think I'm going to be returning to again and again like some of his films.
Incredible movie. One of my favorites that year, and I have watched it multiple times since it released.
OP
OP
Lots of good responses so far! I just wanted to address one thing.....in this thread (and everywhere else too) there is a lot of criticism about the Bruce Lee scene or that it's disrespectful in some way. And if it were played straight, I would agree. But it's not. This movie is a straight up fantasy. Tate living and the title fading in at the end is also there to remind you of that. And in the context of a fairy tale, I have no issue with Cliff remembering kicking Lee's ass (not to mention that it comes from the memory of an unreliable source).
On another note I love how all the "Cliff killed his wife" stuff that we aren't sure is true or not bears fruit at the end when he has no issue maiming and murdering 2 of the Manson family women. He totally killed his wife.
On another note I love how all the "Cliff killed his wife" stuff that we aren't sure is true or not bears fruit at the end when he has no issue maiming and murdering 2 of the Manson family women. He totally killed his wife.
Great film, grew on me on repeat viewings. A great hangout movie to just stick on and crack some beers/smoke a bowl.
It was a bit too "out there" for me, even by Tarantino standards. I liked the acting stuff with DiCaprio, but thought the Pitt storyline was a huge drag. The ending was so insane that it took me out of the movie, even if maybe that was the point.
I can't believe it was nominated for so many Oscars.
I can't believe it was nominated for so many Oscars.
Yeah, this was a hard pill to swallow. In a weird way I would argue its probably the most racist scene in his filmography since he can't explain it away as serving the movie as opposed to his gangsters loving to use slurs (They are supposed to be bad people, ya see) or in service of a greater critique and indictment of slavery or early Americana Racism.
This was 'Lets show the barrier breaking Asian actor as a piece of shit and have him get whupped on and shown his place by a white man'.
The Cliff/Bruce scene is based on Gene Lebell and Bruce Lee.
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I enjoyed it well enough, but it's the first Tarantino movie I have basically no desire to revisit.
Really loved it but I think it relies too heavily on knowing the full story of the Manson/Sharon Tate story to get the full effect.
Also could have cut like half an hour of the movie imo
Also could have cut like half an hour of the movie imo
QT has a lot of outright spittake full stop asshole racist scenes. When I first watched this scene I laughed because QT is so emboldened and disrespectful that this asshat knows that he can get away with having this nobody white guy secretly best (easily) one of media's most honored masculine Asian fighters of all time.
I'm tortured by my love/hate relationship with Tarantino. He is clearly a GIGANTIC racist asshole. But he's also undeniably gifted. I want to punch him in the face, but also slow-clap his skill.
I find that when Tarantino engages in historical revisionism, I just don't like the result. Inglorious Basterds conveniently wiped away fascism, Django conveniently wiped away slavery, and Once Upon a Time conveniently wiped away an event that you could argue changed the trajectory of Hollywood. I find all of these saccharine in the way they pander easy, feel good solutions to the audience to make them feel better about dark chapters in our collective history.
Each of these films is Tarantino at his absolute worst. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood might be the most pointless of them all.
Each of these films is Tarantino at his absolute worst. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood might be the most pointless of them all.
Yup. And it's take is weird. IRL it seems an issue of Bruce trying to apparently 'character act' and really fight with the stunt people so it looks good on film with Lebell trying to calm him down; they became friends from it. In the movie he's just an asshole fraud put in his place by a white dude.
Same. Sadly being black you gotta judge racism on a curve in American entertainment and I made 'peace' with Tarantino and his ways awhile ago. Still, bizarre ass moment in the film...it's not like Bruce had any other real scenes after that, and we already knew Brad Pitt's character was a badass...so there was no character arc served, no tying into any themes, just 'STFU, Asian dude, a real white man is on set'
I dont know how you came to these conclusions.
If anything, I feel like the movies having been unequivocal middle fingers to these events. Wrapped in his own style.
i thought it was very boring.
Only the last 20 minutes i enjoyed.
The whole thing with Pitt at the farm was just one massive tease.
Only the last 20 minutes i enjoyed.
The whole thing with Pitt at the farm was just one massive tease.
It's Tarantino's most sentimental and human movie.
Easily my favorite of his.
It's one of the most tragically sad happy endings I've ever seen It's beautiful
Easily my favorite of his.
It's one of the most tragically sad happy endings I've ever seen It's beautiful
Yeah he somehow threaded the needle, I was amazed at how well Robbie embodied the character and how it made the viewer truly grapple with a loss they might not have felt otherwise.
The way each of these films present their historical revisionism is clearly designed to be a crowd pleaser. It changes history but in a pandering, dead end, shallow way. It may be his own middle finger to the event, but I get absolutely nothing out of it.
As a director, I believe Tarantino's strength lies in alienating his audience and being sadistic with them, not when he panders to his audience to make them feel good. I don't find that feel-good mode from him very interesting at all and a waste of his talent. I'd compare it to David O. Russell's career late-stage heel turn to making shallow crowd pleasers. They mostly review well and they do good box office numbers, but they're inferior films that don't fit what the director does best.
I still absolutely love it. It's one of the few films I find truly rewatchable. I watched it around five times in theaters, and I wasn't close to tired of it by the end of its run.
There are a lot of films I love, but that I don't need to see more than once every couple years. With Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood, I wouldn't mind a rewatch once a month. I find it delightful in all kinds of ways.
There are a lot of films I love, but that I don't need to see more than once every couple years. With Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood, I wouldn't mind a rewatch once a month. I find it delightful in all kinds of ways.
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Robbie gave one of the best performances I've ever seen period.
Especially when she was tasked with telling her story mostly through body acting
Having Inglorious in the back of the head made the 3rd act incredible because I was begging Tarantino to IG this movie... I cried so much.
I saw it a second time with my parents who loved it and I was just sobbing during the credits because it's a beautiful fantasy that final scene.
The movie is a love letter to Sharon Tate.
Yeah I would agree with this. To me these films are pretty much fairy tales offering catharsis to the viewer. You kinda get a palpable sense that QT is using these scenes to unload his frustration of the real life events during the climax of these films.
Personally I loved what he did, but I can see why someone might not.
The end of Hollywood is anything but shallow my gosh.
The ending is gutwrenching
Because it's just a story
Just a movie
Just a Once Upon a Time.
